Zoey: Zombicidal Maniac & Horror Movie Enthusiast
by cellohero
Summary: Zoey's finally living her own horror movie, but it's not what she'd thought it'd be like. She never thought she would lose her family so quickly, and now she's falling in love? Zoey's got a complicated life...
1. The Supermarket

I pulled my sweatshirt passed my elbow and braced myself to smash through the glass door of the untouched supermarket. Stupid horror movies. I had always wanted to be in one; never did I mention I wanted the horror to be real.

"Jackpot," Francis said. I broke through the glass and flipped the lock on the door when the store's alarm system kicked in. A high-pitched wail rang all around us and down the streets.

"This is gonna get ugly," Louis groaned. I reloaded my pistols and prepared for the horde.

"Here we go…" I said. The start of the horde came from the right, down the highway. Bill and Louis, with their long-ranged submachine guns, picked off the zombies from far away. Francis and I were always braced for surprise attacks; stray zombies, ambushes from behind, zombies that Bill and Louis might've missed from the initial horde. I had my pistols aimed at the inside of the supermarket, and for a good reason; four zombies ran as fast as they could (which was superhuman, so it was pretty fast) towards the glass double-doors. I rapidly pulled both triggers on my M1911A1s. Each zombie fell, one by one, in a flurry of gunshots that sounded pathetic compared to the shotgun and machine gunshots I could hear coming from behind me. I turned back around to focus my bullets at the horde at hand. I kept repeated fire going behind the rest of my team, taking down single zombies when they got too close. Something pushed me from behind, knocking one of my pistols out of my hand. I turned and shot whatever was behind me. It was a boomer.

"Zoey!" Francis yelled as the bile spurted all over the four of us. We heard the screams signaling a new horde, and Louis and Bill ducked in the front so we could shoot blindly over them.

"You know, they didn't have Boomers in Resident Evil!" I kept the shots going at the general direction that I could hear the zombies. Apparently, my senses were way off. All at once, scratches and bites tore through my right arm and leg and face, knocking my other pistol out of my hand. I fell to the ground, zombies chomping and cutting at my whole body, and I was helpless. Then, I heard a very distinctive noise. Before I could make it out totally, I felt a huge blow to my side and I flew into the air.

"Tank!" The other three screamed. _Fan-friggin'-tastic_, I thought. At least it had knocked me away from the horde. Francis threw me his pump shotgun and I pumped that Tank full of lead. He flicked his face toward me.

"Crap," I said under my breath. I pumped the shotgun and kept the shots coming, running backwards as I emptied shells into the behemoth. He charged after me, but I was slowing down. My cuts were getting to me. I was limping at this point, trying to wound the monster as much as possible, trying to slow him down. _I'm not going to die,_ I chanted in my head. I ran out of ammo.

"Francis!" I yelled, throwing his shotgun as far as I could in his direction, but that last move cost me a blow to the front by my pursuer. I was flung into the air again, a hundred feet away, and my jaw clamped down on my tongue. I scrambled on the ground, feeling around for a weapon, and trying to see if the others had fought off the horde yet.

"Guys, help!" I choked out through blood.

"Zoey?!" Louis screamed. Then, I heard a different kind of scream, and before I could register _the_ noise, Bill called out,

"Hunter's on Louis!" I continued to crawl, frantic now, looking for anything. I found a rock, and chucked it at his head. It didn't faze him one bit. _This is not David and Goliath, Zoey!_ I thought. I kept crawling backwards as the Tank got closer and closer. My hand hit something made of glass.

"Molotov…" The Tank was ten feet away now. I chucked it at his chest. He stopped and roared in pain, then charged at me with new adrenaline. However, his little voice box spasm gave me enough time to get back on my feet and start running back towards the horde.

"Bill, handgun!" I screamed as loudly as I could. He tossed his pistol to me and I ran to the left, leading the tank away from the helpless, trapped survivors.

"Hey, ugly!" I taunted. I unloaded the first chip into the Tank in seven seconds flat, before he'd even known what hit him. He was confused, so I took my time, walking backwards slowly. He was still on fire, and he would die any second. Most likely. I reloaded and kept Bill's pistol aimed at the Tank's head. I emptied the second chip into his brain, and he got angry again. He started after me for the second time, and I shot faster and faster, pumping out three, four, five more chips until finally, after one last battle cry, he fell to his knees. Then, I charged gun-first into the horde, knocking zombies away from my badly wounded partners in zombicide. I shot zombies off of their backs, and they returned the favor. The gunshots died down slowly until, with one last pop from my left pistol, it was dead silent.

"That was fun," I laughed awkwardly.


	2. Dinner

Bill pulled open the door and we paraded into the building. I limped with a purpose, straight to the pharmacy.

"Pills here," my voice echoed through the abandoned supermarket. This reminded me of Dawn of the Dead, except they were in a mall. _We're in a friggin' supermarket. There's no where to hide. _I dumped a whole shelf of Advil into my messenger bag. "No first aid… Seriously?" I complained to myself. It was extremely inconvenient, especially after a run-in with a Tank. Typical horror movie. I heard Louis' voice ring.

"Weapons here!" Score! I followed the reverberation of his dulcet tones and found the mothers of all weapons: the auto-shotgun, the sniper rifle, and the assault rifle. Fabulous.

"Now _this_ is a shotgun," Francis said with a smirk. I grabbed a sniper rifle. I had the best eyes in the group; this would be the perfect weapon for me. "Zoey, you're gonna be deadly with that thing," he commented.

"I sure hope so." Then, I heard Bill say the three words that could've changed my outlook on life at that moment.

"First aid here!" I worked myself into a full trot to where Bill's voice had come from and my face lit up at the sight of the tiny red backpack that could save my life. He tossed one to me and I tore it open like a starving person tearing open a loaf of bread. My hands were shaking as I wrapped a bandage around my right arm. I cringed a little; the Tank must have sprained my arm or something. Blood was already soaking through the gauze as I tucked in the last corner. I opened my bag and took out a bottle of pain pills. I took the cap off and shook two pills into my hand. I dropped them into my waiting mouth and downed my last bottle of water like a savage.

"Crap," I said, realizing that now I'd have no more water until the indefinite instance that we'd find more.

"Hey, no sweat," Francis chimed in as he walked toward me. "Whenever you need some, just ask." I soaked that in for a few seconds.

"Thanks, Frannie," I joked, using my newfound pet name for him. He playfully punched my arm. I coughed and spoke. "Did anyone look for food yet?"

"Nope. When Bill announced the presence of first aid, we all bee-lined for our savior." Francis smiled. I smiled along with him, and left the room in search of some tasty snacks. I first checked the refrigerated section. There could've been power after the outbreak, and some edible food. I hadn't had milk in a good week, let alone cheese, yogurt, pretty much any dairy or meat product.

"We've got some frozens!" Louis yelled in relief. We'd had stale breads and cold soup for more than a week, whatever we could find.

"You guys pick out our dinner. I'll look for an oven," I said, and I started off towards the back room.

"Not without me, kid," Francis jogged over to me. "Thirsty?" He took his water bottle out of his belt and held it out to me.

"No, I'm good," I said, shaking my head. "Save your water." I turned my head forward again. He pressed the bottle against the side of my face.

"Come on, there's tons of water here. It's a supermarket!" He knocked the plastic cap on my head.

"Ouch! Fine, Francis!" I seized the water bottle and took a long, huge, satisfying sip. "Happy?"

"Delighted." And idea popped into my head.

"What if we just found a microwave or a grill and plugged it in to cook stuff? There's obviously power."

"Brilliant, darling." I laughed at my nickname. We did a U-turn and searched the aisles for the ones labeled "outdoor cooking" or "kitchen appliances."

"Outdoor appliances. Really?" We strode down that aisle. I suddenly felt an urge building up inside me. It captivated my thoughts, and controlled my actions and words. Suddenly,

"This one has a nice color, but I'm not sure if it's big enough for all of us. But it's the least expensive…" Francis raised his right eyebrow at me. "Sorry… Just my girlish urge to shop."

"I'm guessing you're the kind of person that wants a big family." I brushed an imaginary lock of hair behind my ear.

"Well, I was just an almost-college-dropout. I didn't really plan for the future."

"You still could've hoped. And after this stupid apocalypse… You must feel like a lump of goat cheese."

"Actually, I've never felt more important in my life. For all we know, I'm the last woman left on the planet. Who knows how far the infection has spread, or who didn't know they were infected before they went on vacation to England, or if the infection came from England, or—" Francis covered my mouth.

"Grill. Got it?" I nodded, and he removed his hand from my face. "So, what are you hoping they pick out for us to eat?" He asked while he picked out the lightest grill to carry. I could tell this conjuring-of-small-talk was awkward for Francis, so I cut him some slack.

"Haven't had hamburgers in a while. But steak would be great… With potatoes… We could make potatoes in a microwave… Mashed potatoes! Yeah, and there are probably tomatoes and broccoli in the fridges, which would—" Francis covered my mouth again. "Grill." I licked his hand. "Ugh, Zoey!" He snatched his hand away. I punched him playfully on his arm.

"Got it." I smiled wide, bent my knees, and lifted the nearest grill. I wobbled, but didn't fall.

"Come on, Zoey, let me help you…" I rammed the grill box into his torso and teetered my way to the end of the aisle. "Seriously, darling, I'll take one side."

"Find a microwave," I grunted. One step at a time, I slowly made my way to the food aisle. As soon as Louis and Bill caught sight of a struggling 18-year-old girl carrying a huge grill box, they rushed over to help the damsel in distress.

"How did Francis let you carry this all by yourself?" Louis said just loudly enough so Francis could hear from wherever he was.

"She wouldn't let me help!" We heard him yell back from the other side of the store. I laughed at him and the three of us gently set the box on the ground and Francis came running back with a microwave in his arms.

"What's with the boxes?" Louis said.

"We could just hook these up to the power."

"That's a lot harder than finding one."

"But what if we happen to _find_ a Tank with the magical oven." Louis sarcastically mouthed the word "magical." I shook my head. "Whatever. You guys look for one, and I'll wait by this wall for him to fling you at it." I smiled. "Go. I dare you three."

"Well, I can't pass up a dare," Francis said with a grin.

"Zoey, this is a stupid thing to do," Bill warned, but he started walking towards the back room. Francis followed. Louis hesitated.

"Zoey, come on. We can't afford you to have another little run-in with a special." I shook my head.

"Go, Louis. If anything happens, I'll call you guys out here. Okay?" He shrugged, but followed Bill and Francis into the back room. I sat there, trying to act as smug as possible. I heard a weird cough. It sounded like someone who had just inhaled a bunch of helium. I figured it was just Francis trying to be funny, so I continued with my façade when I heard a louder cough. I thought I was going crazy, but it sounded like it was coming from behind me, outside of the store. _Zombies don't cough, I told myself. Then, heard the sound of a slingshot being snapped, and a slimy rope wrapped around my body. Before I knew it, I was being pulled along the ground towards the door, defenseless._


	3. Night of the Apocalypse

"Guys! Help!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, the only useful body parts at this point. I tried to look around, but I was blind with panic. What was dragging me? I tried to reach Bill's handgun in my pocket, but it was no use. I tore at the strange rope with my teeth. "Guys!"

"Zoey!" Francis called back, and I heard the sound of his steel-toed biker boots running in my direction.

"Francis!" This reminded me of another time when Francis had saved my life. The fire escape. The Tank. I had trusted him so totally and fully. Literally put my life in his hands. And he didn't fail me. He caught me. I didn't think he'd drop me now. With one pop from a shotgun, I felt myself freed, and I collapsed onto the floor.

"Wow. What was that?"

"I call it a Smoker," Louis said.

"Is that what Bill would turn into?" Francis teased.

"You smoke too, Francis," I pointed out with a grunt as I picked myself up. He cleared his throat rather loudly.

"So?" he countered, although it was clear that I'd won this fight. I gave yet another one of my huge smiles. Francis smiled mockingly girlishly back at me, and he changed the subject.

"We found an oven. We can cook something back there. We'll let you choose."

"Maybe you will…" Louis said under his breath. Francis ignored him and put his arm around me, in an older-brotherly way.

"Wow, first a Tank, now a Smoker. You definitely deserve this dinner." I felt spoiled, but in a good way. At least I knew Francis cared, at least while I was weak and limping. I gave him a little-sister hug and we walked to the food aisle again. The touching felt awkward, but comforting too. He reminded me of my dad. Wow. This was nothing like how I'd ever thought I would be thinking in my horror movie. I thought I'd be all "gotta be strong for everyone else." Now, everyone else was being strong for me, and I was perfectly okay with that. I pretended Francis was my dad. I squeezed him tighter, and listened to my dad tell one of his boring, endearing stories of the good ol' days. Then Francis talked and ruined my fantasy. "Here we are. What do you want?" I opened my eyes again and the first thing I saw was salmon. I pointed to it.

"That. I want that." I was subconsciously aware that I was acting like an infant, but I didn't care. It was just Francis, I didn't need to prove anything to him. Then, two words came to mind. Lemon pepper. "Be right back." I let go of Francis, and ran down the main aisle until I found spices. I looked through the little jars until I found my fish seasoning, and ran back to Francis.

"How does this sound?" I held up the little jar, shook it, and smiled widely again.

"Wonderful, darling. Now, come on." He grabbed me by the shoulder and led me to where the oven was.

"You didn't bring the fish." I laughed at him as he let go of my shoulder.

"Be right back." He hurried back to the main part of the supermarket. I looked over the oven to see how to use it. It was the standard button timer and clock. The clock part was blinking 12:00. I hadn't known what time it was since before the infection started.

I was having movie night with my roommate. It was her turn to pick the movie, which was bad news for me. See, I love horror movies. She loved romances. She chose Casablanca. I fell asleep in the first thirty minutes. The last time I checked it was 9:16. When I woke up, the power was out and my roommate was trying to eat my face. I pushed her off and yelled at her.

"What are you doing?!" Then, a man in an army uniform busted into my room and shot her head off. I was completely shocked.

"Why did you just do that?!" I started having confused thoughts. Was she in trouble with the government? Was I going to be because I was her roommate? "Don't shoot me!"

"I'm not going to. Turn on the radio, and take this." He handed me a pistol. I looked at it, turned it over in my hands. Why was he giving me this?

"Thanks…" I dropped the gun on the bed and walked into the kitchen. I turned the dial on our old-fashioned radio and heard white noise, but it sounded like all radio stations were saying the same thing. I tuned in on one and listened.

"…don't know how this happened, but the military is taking immediate action, killing all infected they find and arming all survivors. We will stay on the air as long as we possibly can, repeating the same message. There has been an outbreak with an infection that the world has never seen before. People are producing zombie-like symptoms that America's best scientists are working on an antidote and vaccination for. These infected move very slowly except when provoked. At this time, they can be deadly. When bitten, the person will turn into one of the creatures, unless immune. Signs that you are in the process of changing include: clumsiness, lethargy, extremely high temperatures…" I couldn't listen anymore. Nicole had bitten me. What if I turned into a zombie? I rushed to the medicine cabinet and tore through the pill bottles until I found our tongue thermometer.

"If I have a fever, I'm a zombie," I declared out loud. I reluctantly clicked the button and stuck the metal end under my tongue. I waited for it to beep ten times in a row, then nervously pulled it out. 98.6. Yes!

"Hm," I contemplated. "Zombie apocalypse." I cocked my gun and smiled. "Bring it."


	4. The Witch

"Zoey?" I snapped out of my untimely flashback. Louis was waving his hand in front of my face with a confused countenance.

"Huh?" I shook my head and brought myself back into the present time. "What?"

"Dinner." My mood lightened. I was starving. I looked up at the oven again, this time noticing the steaming platter of salmon. It smelled like heaven. Francis squeezed my arm.

"Go ahead and eat first, darling." I smiled, but shook my head.

"We can all eat at once, there's no problem with that, is there?"

"You've been through a lot today," Bill said. "Eat up."

"Whatever…" I stuck my hand into the salmon and pulled out a chunk.

"Now eat," I commanded as I stuffed the fish into my mouth. Louis' face went a little green as he glanced at my bloody fingers with dried up Boomer bile. He spoke without using his throat.

"That's yours, Zoey…" He said. Francis laughed.

"But she so wanted to share it with you, Louie." I giggled.

"I did!" I joked. Bill laughed. Francis gasped.

"Bill?! You have emotions other than depressed and pessimistic?" Louis and I laughed this time. Bill ripped his and Louis' piece of salmon in half with his hands when Louis looked away. Francis ripped ours.

"Pick your half," he said. I closed my eyes and spun the pan, then pointed while I was still blind. Then I opened my eyes.

"That one." He smiled and moved his piece to the other side of the pan. We tore through our meals like savages. By the time we were done with the meal, our faces were speckled with lemon pepper.

"No matter how many times I wash my hands, they still smell like cod liver oil," Louis complained while examining his hands.

"Suck it up, Louis," Francis said. "You get zombie blood and saliva on them every day, but you can't handle a little fish?" Louis wiped his hands on his pants one more time and was silent.

"I guess we should turn in," Bill said. "Don't know what time it is, but I'm definitely ready to sleep."

"Ha, me too," I said. Francis rolled his eyes.

"No, I thought after playing a game of soccer with a Tank and tug of war with a Smoker that you'd be bright and perky." I was so tired, that I laughed, and kept laughing through making my makeshift bed. I made my last laugh as I shuffled around, making myself comfortable. Then, I sighed.

"I hope tomorrow isn't like today," I said as I slid under my bath-towel-blanket.

"Are you kidding?" Francis grunted, getting into his bed as well. "Dinner was great!"

When I woke up, it was still dark out, but I felt like I had a full 14 hours of sleep. I sat up and looked around. Everyone else seemed to still be asleep. I looked at the stove. It said 2:34. Bill must have set it last night. I saw Francis' eyes open for a second.

"I saw that," I said. He opened them again, this time keeping them open.

"You win." He smiled, obviously still tired. Whenever he smiled, the brown in his eyes shined. I liked that about them. I liked his smile too. His teeth were slightly crooked in the front, just like my dad's. Wow, this guy could be related to me. I looked at him again. Except his eyes. They're not blue. But a pretty not-blue… I looked away before he thought anything weird about me.

"Should we wake up Bill and Louis?" I asked with another grunt as I stood up.

"Well you're already up. It can't hurt." I kicked Louis gently, but hard enough.

"Rise and shine!" I kicked him again. Francis reached out and happened to hit Bill.

"Good morning, starshine. The Earth says hello!" Louis and Bill slowly emerged from their "beds." We packed up everything (which mostly consisted of my shelf of pills) and we took some food for the trip, leaving some for other survivors (just in case there were any). We began walking down the street towards a shopping center.

"There's a safe house in the Borders over here," Bill announced.

"Almost there!" I tried to raise everyone's spirits. "Wait. Can we go back and get my pistols?" Bill groaned.

"We don't have time for that, Zoey!"

"I'll go with her," Francis offered. I accepted.

"Be right back!" I ran off to the front of the store in search of my guns.

"Got one!" Francis yelled from behind me.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Zombies could've moved it." I ran back to the double doors and found my pistol, green and slimy from our run-in with the Boomer.

"Sweet," I said with a grimace, sliding it into my belt. "Let's go." We ran back to Bill and Louis, and they were pretty far away. I was out of breath by the time we caught up.

"Cardio. It's good for you!" Louis encouraged.

"Yeah, darling. It's good for you!" Francis patted me on the back, sending me into a fit of coughing.

"Thanks," I choked when I was finished. We kept walking. Then I heard something. It sounded like a little girl crying. "Hear that? It's a Witch."

"Lights off!" Bill whispered. We stopped and look around for a few minutes.

"I don't see her anywhere. Let's just go," I said and started walking.

"Zoey!" Francis snapped. "Don't!" He ran up and grabbed my arm. "Stop."

"No, she's nowhere. Look around." He did, and nodded.

"I'm not letting you get yourself killed," he said, all tough-guy-like and cocky. I rolled my eyes and jogged into the bookstore.

"No Witch in here either!" I called behind me. I strutted towards the red steel doors and tripped over something. I heard a little girl scream and suddenly, I was knocked to the ground. Something was digging into my skin, and I was screaming. I didn't know what was happening. Chunks of my skin were being ripped out, and the whole time I was thinking, I'm dying! Then, suddenly, all of the tearing and gnawing stopped, and a Witch's small, pale body collapsed on top of me. Blood that had been spurting into the air now splashed all over my body, flooding my face so that I couldn't see and could barely hear. I could just feel the Witch's corpse knocked off of me, and my own shaking, blood-soaked body being lifted from the ground, fireman style. Pain pills were being dropped down my throat, and my sticky bangs being brushed from my face. I could make out the faint sounds of worry, but it sounded like they were being shouted from the opposite end of an extremely long tunnel.

"Zoey! Wake up, Zoey!" It was Francis, or at least it sounded like Francis. I was carried somewhere and gently placed on a couch, probably one for people who like to read their books in the store. The travel had allowed most of the blood to drip from my ears and eyes. I spat the rest out of my mouth.

"Guys?" I gurgled.

"Zoey!" Francis lifted up my torso to give me an I'm-really-extremely-glad-you-lived-through-that hug. I hugged him back as well as I could. I started to whisper.

"I… I lu…"

"It's okay, Zoey. Don't talk."

"I love you… guys," I finally spat out. Francis' face lit up after that, and I'm guessing Louis' and Bill's did too, because Francis was the only thing I could see at that moment (and I didn't mind that one bit).

"Why does all the cool stuff happen to you?" Francis joked. I coughed a laugh. Francis carried me into the safe room where he healed me and gave me more pain pills. I felt better after about a half an hour.

"Man, how does that tiny Witch pack such a punch?" I laughed. Francis answered with a laugh.

"Tell me about it."


End file.
